Vol 1: Chapter 4: First Contact (Part 1)

Volume 1: Blood on Blade

Chapter 4:

First Contact (Part 1)

Although the damage to infrastructure were quite minimum compared to other big cities in Japan, Wakkanai City had a number of casualties up to 20% of it's population just from that 30 minutes disaster.

Everything was shutted down as people grieving over their loss of loved ones for 2 days straight.

Everything start moving again in the middle of third day, where people worked together cleaned up the mess in their city and listed all the lives that were gone.

Just yesterday the substitute of the city's representative (because even the city representative himself get taken out in that attack) held the memorial in their city local cemetery.

Around five thousands of the victim's names in this incident were engraved in the black monolith to remember them all and the tragedy happened that day.

From that list, there are also two names that were very familiar for Ikuto. Michitaka Chinatsu, his beloved sensei, and Sakasaki Maya, ..... his mother.

When the situation calmed down and those monster and crack in the sky disappeared, while still grieving for Chinatsu-sensei's death, Ikuto ran towards Majima Mansion, hoping his mother was safe.

What he found there shattered his hope along with his heart. The big mansion was in ruined state. The search team that was already there retrieved many corpses in the ruins mansion in body bags.

When Ikuto asked the search team if they found a woman with the description of his mother's features, the expression of the man he asked become so uncomfortable.

Ikuto then was being led towards two body bags that was set differently from other body bags.

The man said he thought these two corpses were the Majima Toshio and his wife because he found them crushed under the rubbles.

Why he thought they were the Majima couple was because the place he found them and the conditions of those unrecognizable corpses.

In the main bedroom, and both were naked and 'entangled'.

But he then found out that the wife, Majima Kaori, was actually in another city from the words of the survived servant, and she was still alive.

As he did not know who was the identity of this woman corpse, he set it aside while looking for other corpses.

But now he found out, he really did not know how to break the news to the boy.

When Ikuto walked towards the body bag, kneeling on the ground, and slowly opened the zipper.

Ikuto fainted.

Inside the body bag, was a bloody naked woman with unrecognizable condition where that even the head was completely crushed.

•

•

•

July 25th, 2050, Wakkanai City, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan

Five days....

It's been five days since the disaster happened over all the place in the world, and everything slowly trying to come back to normal.

Ikuto once again sat on the benches at the park behind the apartement building where he had his last conversation with Chinatsu-sensei.

He remembered his last conversation with Chinatsu-sensei.

He talked with her with intention to never talk with her again so she could be happy. But what the fuck was this?!

He never wanted her to be dead!

Even more because she died saving him. Someone he himself considered as useless human being that only bring misfortune to those around him.

More, and more, and more guilt washed over him like an endless torrent.

He did not have that many people close to him, but all people in that category ended up in misfortune.

The most prime example was Chinatsu-senseicwho ended up died saving him.

And then there was his mother.

He really thought of himself as a scourge in his mother life.

If he never retaliated back then few days ago, his mother would never go to Majima mansion. She maybe would still be alive.

If he never known or just pretend to not know about his mother job back then in that elementary school days, he would not be so estranged from his mother. They maybe would still be a happy family.

If only she had never been pregnant with him! Maybe she would still live well with her family.

So many 'if' and so many 'maybe' popped up in his mind, but nothing could erase his guilt.

'Maybe.... I should just... die?'

That thought came to him at last.

He was already tired with life. There was no one left that would care for him, so no one would notice if he was dead.

He needed to plan where he should die. A place where he would not cause any trouble to anyone even with his death.

In the apartment?

The other tenants will be disturbed by the smell of his corpse later. And this apartment complex would get a bad stigma around the neighborhood.

Drown himself in the sea?

There was a chance his corpse would be found by the fisherman or sailor. And human corpse would just contaminate the clean sea.

Hmm, where else--

"Can I sit next you, Ikuto?"

Ikuto instantly looked up ahead and saw Chinatsu's husband standing in front of him, both of his inside his pocket while he smile at him.

Ikuto did not know how to react.

The man took the silence as agreement and then sat beside Ikuto.

Minutes passed, but no one was speaking.

Could not bear it anymore with this tension, Ikuto opened his mouth.

"What are you doing here, Michitaka-san?"

This man, Chinatsu's husband, was Michitaka Masaya. He is a kind and good husband by Chinatsu-sensei description of him, but that was all Ikuto knew about him.

Not knowing anything about his conversation partner sure made Ikuto a little nervous.

'Did he come to blame me for everything that happened to Chinatsu-sensei?'

'....Will he take revenge?'

'Hmm maybe it's fine to let him kill me if he is going to take revenge. That way, my life at least could be used to vent his anger.'

'Right, let's do--'

"Are you still blaming yourself, Ikuto?"

All the negative and extreme thought inside Ikuto's got cut off when Masaya suddenly asked that.

"Eh?"

"What I meant to say is, you should forget that guilt. The fault was not entirely yours. Half of it was mine."

"What do you mean?"

Masaya then told him everything that happened on their part.

Apparently, Masaya worked in one of the branch company of Majima Entertainment as a manager of some famous male singer.

But one day, he was called by the company president. He was shown some document proving Masaya's crime in stealing a company secret and selling it to their competitors, and said that he would call the police to imprison him.

Masaya knew it was all fabricated as he never even heard about any company secret. In short, he was framed.

He tried to refute that he did not know anything about that, but it was futile.

Masaya knew that this was not a simple framing accident, so he asked straight to the company president, about who was it that framing him and what was their demands.

He then knew this fabricated evidence came directly from the main branch, which mean the Majima Entertainment CEO himself, Majima Toshio.

Upon hearing what his demand was, Masaya almost went out in rage to find the CEO, and commit a real crime of murder.

Toshio wanted Masaya's wife, Chinatsu, to become his son's sex friend.

Masaya did not care if he must went to prison if he could protect his family, and really considered to go with the whole murder plan.

But the branch company president managed to talked him down and told him to think about it more and gave him a few days to reconsider before the fabricated evidence would be brought out to public.

Masaya went home and told the whole thing to his wife, he then heard the rough picture of the situation from her.

That there was a boy she greatly want to protects from the bully. Masaya knew about the boy she referring to because she oftenly talk about him.

And the bully of that boy turned to be the Majima Toshio's son. The grudge of the bully probably accumulated enough because Chinatsu always protected the target of his bullying, so his target shifted to her.

When Masaya accidentally let his real feeling of wanting to kill the CEO slipped out of his mouth, Chinatsu made the decision for him.

That she would do their demands.

When he asked why, Chinatsu said it was not worth it. Masaya could not kill the CEO, and if he went to prison for attempted murder, there was no guarantee that they would just let them be.

She was also considering Akari's, their daughter, future if he, her father, went to prison.

He really wanted to refute, but when he saw his wife expression that was so contrast with her calm words, he knew Chinatsu was also really frustrated with their situation, and she made that decision after went through a great turmoil.

That was how the video Ikuto saw came to be.

Masaya also cursed himself because of his powerlessness in protecting his family. For letting his wife went through such a thing. He was a failure as a husband.

He did not know what happened after that one session, because the Majima's became strangely calm and not asking for Chinatsu anymore.

He asked his wife, and while crying in his arms, Chinatsu said she failed to protect the boy and the situation got so much worse.

"So I want you to ease your guilt a little. If you want, you can also blame me. I'm the one who failed to protect her. I'm really a useless husband."

Ikuto could not bear to hear it so calm anymore. He stood up and facing a dejected Masaya.

"No! Why would it be your fault!? Chinatsu-sensei always protecting me, she even died for someone like me! I'm the one who bring such a misfortune to her! I'm the one who was at fault. Now I think about it again, why would she go to such a length for someone like me?! I really don't understand that!"

Ikuto raised his voice. 

Even though Masaya told him to not feel guilty, that was something Ikuto would never want to consider.

If he did not even have the right to feel guilty, then how he should feel about everything? Just moving on? Don't mess with him!!

"....Chinatsu, she once had a younger brother."

"Eh?"

That was the first time Ikuto ever heard of it. Especially because Chinatsu-sensei rarely talked about herself.

"....once had? What happened to him?"

Ikuto emotion immediately became calm as he inquired more from Masaya.

"10 years ago, he died in an accident. Since then, Chinatsu became so cold and estranged from everyone. Like she was just waiting for death."

10 years ago, it meant far before Ikuto first met her. Ikuto could not imagine the warm Chinatsu-sensei being so cold like was described by him.

"But then, one day, around 8 years ago, she suddenly starting to become better after we came back from a vacation to this city. Ah, Chinatsu and I both from Kamikawa."

"...."

"Chinatsu said she's moving to this city. Our family let her do what she wanted. After I also moved following her here, I found out the reason."

"Reason..."

"Yeah, it was you, Ikuto. Although you are not 100% similar with her brother, but there are many resemblance between you and him, and that attracted Chinatsu to you."

"So I'm just a substitute?"

"I can't deny it because apparently that's really how Chinatsu perceived you at first. But along the way, I could feel it that she truly cares for you, not just as her brother replacement, but you as you. You also felt that, didn't you?"

"....but I....."

"So please don't see her sacrifice to save you as her misfortune, because if she is still here, I bet she would smack you in the head. That's just how much she considered you as her real family."

Masaya said that with a joking tone to ease the tension. But...

Yeah, that's true. Considering Chinatsu-sensei personality that Ikuto knew, he probably would get an earful scolding if she were to see his condition now.

They once again sink in a silence, before a ring from Masaya's phone broke it.

Masaya opened his phone to see the message he received and stood up.

"Well, I left Akari with my neighbor and it seems she was crying searching for me. So I must go now."

Masaya said that as he walked past Ikuto.

Ikuto stood still, still comprehending the information he received from their talk.

"Ikuto!"

Ikuto turned his body to see Masaya standing a little far away and looked at him with a smile. "Thank you for becoming part of her life! You don't know how much your presence has brought happiness for her. So, please live well!"

After that Masaya turned again and run a little toward where his car parked.

Once Masaya was completely gone, Ikuto sat again on the bench, still ruminating Masaya's words in his mind.

Leaning his back against the bench, while looking up to the blue sky.

•

•

Time passed, until the sky starting to turn orange. But Ikuto still had not moved from his position from the bench at the park.

He really thought a lot of what had happened, and what should he do moving on from this point.

"He said to live well, but what should I do? I still want to die."

He muttered under his breath.

"Then how about you give your life to me?"

Suddenly a voice come from beside of him, jolted him greatly, and when he turned his head, he saw a woman sat beside of him.

No, the most weird thing was he did not even notice when this woman came and sat beside him.

"Wha, who are you?!"

"It doesn't matter who I'm, just answer my question. Since you wanted to die, how about giving your life to me, surely I can use your life for a greater purpose?"

".... greater purpose, like what?"

Ikuto could feel something weird from this woman. Even though he could see her head, but it was somehow difficult to discern her face or expression. It was like something preventing him from seeing her face.

And although everything about this sounds so fishy, Ikuto just went along for now to hear what this woman's purpose was.

"Hmm, you remember that monster attack 5 days ago? I can make you be the one who can exterminate those monster."

"So, something like human experiments? And does that mean those monsters will return?"

"You wanted to die right? So isn't it fine for me to do whatever I want to you. And yes, they will come back, because once something happens, there will be the second time, third, and so on."

"....."

"So, how is it? Will you accept my term?"

"..... will I really have a chance to kill those monsters?"

"Technically, yes."

"Then it's fine. Do whatever you want with me."

"That's great! With you I can create the strongest and most brutal weapon to kill all those pesky beings."

The woman stood up and stretched herself with both hands to the sky.

"Are you sure? Because even I doubt my body fit the criteria you meant."

"Ah, there is no problem...."

The woman turned her body facing Ikuto, with a gun in her hand pointed at his head.

Before Ikuto could react....

".... because all I need from you is your soul."

'Bang!'

A bullet was shot and the sound reverberate across the silent park.